Jerez Tests – The Assessment of the Four Days

After only four days of testing, it is difficult to draw conclusions from the various lap times achieved, especially since some teams were running their 2011 cars – Mercedes AMG and HRT. Nonetheless, it is interesting to have the ranking of the fastest laps from each driver.

At the top of the timesheet, we notably find the two Mercedes drivers, Rosberg and Schumacher, who each drove for one and a half days in a 2011 car containing some concepts from the 2012 vehicle. It is therefore difficult to have a clear idea of this car’s competitiveness compared to its rivals.

Interspersed between the two German drivers, we find Romain Grosjean, who achieved the best time for 2012 single-seaters at the wheel of the Lotus E20. He is ahead of Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari F2012. They are followed by the two Red Bull drivers, Webber and Vettel, as well as Lewis Hamilton and his MP4-27.

Ranking of the best laps by driver

But as Fernando Alonso said to journalists in Jerez, at this stage of the season lap times mean nothing. Each team conducts its own tests and it is still too early to have a comprehensive view of the strengths and weaknesses of each car.

However, looking more closely at the number of laps completed, we realize there is a significant difference between the drivers. Indeed, the most diligent on the track was Bruno Senna, who covered 250 laps in two days – which corresponds to more than 1000 kilometers and a distance greater than three F1 Grand Prix.

The Brazilian driver needed laps to adapt to his new team and car, and the Williams team offered him maximum track time. Behind Senna, we find the two Lotus F1 drivers, Grosjean and Räikkönen, who respectively completed 212 and 192 laps – which is also a significant number but necessary for two drivers making their return to F1.

At the bottom of the standings, we find two test and reserve drivers, Giedo Van der Garde who covered 74 laps in the Caterham CT-01 and Jules Bianchi who covered 48 laps in the Force India VJM05.

The worst off among the regular drivers is Narain Karthikeyan, who wasn’t even present at Jerez with HRT for these tests. Next is Nico Hülkenberg, who could only complete 90 laps in the new Force India – almost half as much as his teammate Paul di Resta, the Scot having covered 170 laps.

For his debut as an official Formula 1 driver, Jean-Eric Vergne was able to cover 159 laps and the Frenchman enjoyed the experience: “I feel comfortable in the car and I can also have a better understanding of the effect of the setup changes tested. It has been a positive day, so I’m looking forward to the second testing session,” Vergne said yesterday.

Ranking of the number of laps completed by driver

By adding up the number of laps covered by each team, it becomes apparent that the Lotus F1 team completed the most laps. This is not illogical given that they brought in two new drivers for the 2012 season, Räikkönen and Grosjean, and both needed to drive to get a feel for being behind the wheel of an F1 car. The fact that the Lotus F1 team was able to cover 402 laps also proves that the Lotus E20 is already a rather reliable car.

Behind the Enstone team, we don’t find the top teams but Williams, Caterham, and Mercedes – which ran with its 2011 car and only for three days. McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull are somewhat behind in this ranking – 270 laps completed for Ferrari, 295 for Red Bull, and 313 for McLaren.

Ranking of the number of laps completed by team

Thanks to the data collected during these four days of testing, the different teams will rework their single-seaters to try to improve the performance and reliability of the various systems. They have 10 days before the start of the next testing session, which will take place in Barcelona from February 21st to 24th.

This second test session should, in principle, be an opportunity to see all the 2012 cars on track because Mercedes plans to launch its W03 for these tests, as well as Marussia and HRT, even though there is no guarantee that these two teams will have passed the FIA crash tests by then.